Sebastian Kurz: Opinion researcher B. apparently arrested in corruption affair

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Sebastian Kurz: He resigned at the weekend

Photo: JOE KLAMAR / AFP

Corruption allegations against Sebastian Kurz have triggered a government crisis in Austria.

The ÖVP politician resigned as Chancellor a few days ago.

Now there is apparently an arrest in the affair.

The Austrian newspapers “Der Standard” and “Die Presse” unanimously report that the pollster Sabine B. has been arrested.

Shortly before the house searches in the context of the corruption investigation, she is said to have deleted the hard drive of her computer.

The judiciary now wants to investigate the allegations.

As "Die Presse" reports, it is presumed that the house search could have been betrayed.

The Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) did not want to comment on the current developments in the case at the request of the newspaper.

The accused's lawyer was also not available for the time being.

The investigation was based on chats from B.

Sebastian Kurz is under increasing pressure in the affair.

Specifically, he is accused of infidelity and aiding and abetting bribery.

At the weekend he had left the post of Chancellor.

The prosecutors base their investigative steps to a large extent on chats in which opinion researcher B. was also involved.

In the past week, several house searches took place in the Federal Chancellery, the Ministry of Finance and the ÖVP party headquarters.

It is investigated whether embellished surveys have been circulated since 2016 in order to put Kurz in a good light.

There is a suspicion that these were largely paid for by the Austrian Ministry of Finance and distributed by the media group »Austria« for a lot of money.

The group of accused is large.

Among other things, it is determined against Kurz's close confidante, ex-family minister Sophie Karmasin and the former head of cabinet in the finance ministry, Thomas Schmid.

The accused deny all allegations.

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